Quoth the Raven “Oh, God, What for?” – Supernatural: Nevermore

Supernatural: Nevermore by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Quoth the Raven: Don’t see this movie. Also, this image has less to do with the review than you might think.

So…I paid for and read authorized Supernatural fanfiction. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read. But it wasn’t the best, either. I can’t decide if I’m curious enough to read more or not. I may just stick with AO3.

Here there be .gifs and .jpgs. Because of course there are.

Dean and Sam before many Bad Things

The author of Supernatural: Nevermore is kind enough to give a chronological position for the novel within the timeline of the TV show, though the tie-in stuff is not officially canon as far as I can tell (much like the Star Trek novels of my youth). Actually, those Star Trek novels are probably the reason I was willing to give this one a shot in the first place. That, or chronic insanity. But I digress. Nevermore takes place during the second season, after Jared Padalecki broke his wrist doing a stunt a demon broke Sam’s wrist. And before what I don’t even remember.

The book opens with an orangutan killing two college kids in the middle of the street, a sequence that ends with the death of the orangutan and some thoughts from the clearly obsessive villain. Meanwhile, the boys are on their way to New York to do a favor for Ash (one of the regulars at Ellen’s bar — remember Ellen? — and a bona fide genius while at the same time being a mullet-wearing idiot — not idjit). Actually, the favor’s for a friend of Ash’s, a musician whose house is haunted by a ghost who shakes things up after the homeowner comes back from his gigs. Naturally, as soon as they’re settled in Brooklyn with the musician, Sammy turns up the orangutan story, and also another murder that could have come straight from Poe’s oeuvre.

So far, standard Supernatural stuff, though I don’t recall there being an “A” story and a “B” story in most episodes. Though I suppose most episodes have a WTF format, so we’ll go with that. Also, copious amounts of alcohol, if only I were the sort of person who drinks.

Alas.

Interestingly, or maybe not, the two cases don’t intersect at all. Other than being in the same general geographical area. The musician has an epic classic rock collection and sound system, the Poe museum gets visited, and there is an awful lot of book real estate taken up on just how bad a time Dean has driving in the big city. And what a pain in the tuchus it is to park the Impala on city streets.

Sadly, more time was spent on the problems with driving in the boroughs than on characterization of, well, anybody. And the author has some strange ideas about what makes a likely nickname. I’ve never heard Dean call Sam “Sammich” and I profoundly hope I never do. And while Dean does love his classic rock, there was a bit more time spent on the music than on the case. Music, and parking. And, you know…now that I’m writing this up I think I liked this book even less than I thought I did when I started putting this review together in my head.

I’m not really surprised. I wish I were, but I’m not.

While I think fans of the show will probably be amused by the book, there’s not much substance. There is a fairly decent playlist at the back of the book that the author put together while he was writing.

Will I read another one?

I don’t know. Like the Star Trek novels I mentioned above, these tie-ins are written by different authors. While I can rule out anything else written by DeCandido, that’s not to say another of the authors might not suit my literary tastes. Which I suppose means probably, if I decide to spring for one.

But really, if I want to plow through dreck to look for a gem, there’s a metric tonne of free fanfic available.

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